The Portland daily press., 1887-07-12
WOMEN IN INDIA.
The Pundlta Remabal's Story OF
Their Terrible Degradation.

Many New England people have recently
heard words of praise for the religion Of the
Hindus They come from priest Of that re-
ligion. The other side of the story is told by
a victim of that religion, one Of the 21,Ooo,COo
of the Hindus. The story told in the book
she has recently published is summarized by
the Boston correspondent of the Worces-
ter Spy:
The Pundta Ramabai is well known in
London and some Of the cities of the United
States. Her own story is romantic and very
sad. Her own father was Brahman pund-
it, who loved learning and desired that his
wife and children should be educated. So he
began to instruct his second wife (haying
failed in the experiment with his first, whom
he married when he was TO- and his bride
younger still), who was only nine when he
married her. Objections to his plan were so
great and troublesome that he withdrew with
his wife to a forest high up in the Chants
mountains, and there lived in sylvan solitude.
One son and two daughters were born, and
all were carfully educated by the learned ia
ther. They were the victims Of misfortune.
They became very poor and wandered from
place to place with no fixed home.
The elder daughter made a Hindu mar
riage and happily died. Ramabai, engrossed
in her studies, was allowed to remain single.
When she was l6 both father and mother
died, and the account of the funeral is heart
breaking, for the children were so
poor that they were obliged them
three miles to the place of cremation. Then
the brother and sister continued their
travels, often in want and distress, but al
ways advocating female education wherever
they could find hearers. Then the brother
died, and six months later Ramabai married
q a Of 10 Gal-
cutta University. For 10 months she had
peace and love, when the husband died,
leaving her with q daughter only few
months old.
She took up again her work as lecturer,
and she was the cause Of the formation Of
the national association for supplying female
medical aid to the women Of India. She
went to England, and there became Chris
tian, and learned the English language. In
1884 she was made Professor Of Sanscrit at
tie Ladies College in Cheltenham. Two
years later she came to Philadelphia to be
present at the graduation Of Mrs. Anandibal
Joshee, from the Woman's Medical College.
When she saw the Philadelphia schools, and
the beautiful school books In use by the
young children, she was filed with enthusi-
asm and with determination that the Hin
du children should have similar advantages
The young DIR. J0shee went home to India
she was appointed physician in charge OF
the female ward in hospital in kolhapur
and died in few months. not quite y years
old. The Pundita Ramabai remains here
She is now 20 years old, small In stature
very grave, intensely earnest, speaking
English very well, and wearing her Hindu
widows dress, a soft white mantle covering
her head and her whole figure. Her plan Is
to establish at least one school or home
where girls can be educated. She desires to
begin with the high-caste child-widOws. In
India, where there are 100000 more men
than women, the last census gives the num-
Der of widows as a little less than q, ,0O0,0OO
of these, 669, ,1Co are under 10 years of age
and 1896 are under nine years Of age. Th'
Pundita's account of high-easte Hindu so
ciety is horrible.
Even the Christians feel obliged to respect
the tyranny of caste, and not long ago the
missionaries in Madras used different cups
for each caste at the celebration of the Lord
supper. They still called their teaching
Christian, however. In India women arr
despised and are required by both law and
custom to look upon men, however bad and
foolish they are, as gods, and to obey then
blindly. The blessing that priest gives {
women is, "Mayst thou have eight sons and
ever, is not bad; 1t is blessing that mil
lions Of Western women would be glad to re
ceive and to have fulfilled. The Hindu
women are not only densely ignorant, but
they are for the most part destitute of the
human affections which we consider instinct
them in every way, beating them down, call
ing them horrible names, and making
drudgeS Of them.
A high-caste man, the head of his family
must support his wife, his children, his par.
ents, his idle brothers, their families and
nearest widowed relatives, besides priests,
religious beggars, and other hangers-on. IL
his children are girls he Is ruined, for he
must, by compulsion of his religion, have
his daughters married within fixed period.
Each marriage costs at least $500, and most
of the Brahmans are poor. so the poor girl:
are hated burdens. and are married to any
body who will take them, provided he Il
high caste. These marriages are very
strange. 1t is almost impossible for us to ex
plain them in letter. The Pundita's b0ol
must be read, If one would understand thu
tyranny of religion and the custom in India
1t is the popular belief that woman canno
be saved unless she is married, and as sh,
| owes her salvation. to her husband, she owe
him also boundless gratitude and unmeas
ured service.
The young brides are outrageously treated
| and ''to break her spirits" is an essentia
| part of the matrimonial discipline. Their
| seems to be nothing like humanity among
| the Hindus. The boy husbands beat th'
| girl wives, and older women look on and ap
| plaud, the wife eats what the husban,
leaves on his plate; but the widows ar
| nearly ssarved, dress in the most squalid an'
insufficient manner, and have no gleam o
| light in all their lives. The only way of es
| cape in the past from all this misery was th
| custom of infanticide and that Of Suttee
| When the girl baby was killed, she was saw
| ed from misery, and when the wife volunta
| rily burned on her husbands funeral pyre
| she was applauded, had her hearts desire o
| wearing fine clothes and jewels at the last
| and escaped the brutality, the humiliation
| the unspeakable misery and disgrace of
/ widows life.
Now both these doors of escape are close
/ by English civilization. Infanticide an
| Suttee are made criminal acts; and no othe
/ door of escape Is opened. The millions 0
! poor girls are shut up in their great priso
| of ignorance and pain, and there are few
| listen to their cries or to head their agony
But Pundita Ramabai has escaped from tn
| prison houses, and she calls, in the name {
humanity and of God. upon the men an
| women of America, to come quickly withOu
regard to nation, caste or creed, and help tn
| oppressed Hindu women. Without this bel
| the Hindu nation will die, for the sons {
weak in mind and body, and so they all d,
teriorate together. Education is the 0nl
thing that can save them.
England has established a few schools, bu
the supersttions and customs of the pe0pl
interfere with the usefulness of the schools
OF the 99,7OO,OC0 women and girls unde
British rule in India SO, SOC, 900 cannot read {
write at all, and many of the other 20O,0t
can barely do either. To establish school
that would not repel the high caste littl
widows, but would reach and relieve the
needs and suffering, is the desire of Pundii
Ramabai. For this she requires money
$4,000 to start with, and pledge Of $1,000
| year for 10 years to fairly try the expeI
ment. To help raise this sum the Pundi
has published this interesting and impa
stoned account of Hindu society. The intr
duction, telling the Pundita's own stor
| IOShQn R1ph